Acompaniment in Grief. Times of Coronavirus

Bereaved Families Views on the Death of Loved Ones Due to COVID 19: An Integrative Review

Families encounter some issues after the death of their loved one due to COVID-19. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the family's views on the death of their loved one due to COVID-19. This integrative review was conducted from May to Jan 2021. We searched PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, CINHAL, Magiran, and SID databases. Fifteen studies met the inclusion criteria. The results were classified into two categories, including before and after death. The issues raised before the death of the loved ones include no visit and absence at death time, fear of being infected with the COVID-19, death anxiety, failure to perform religious rites at death, and psychological problems. The after-death issues were related to funeral, burial, rituals, prolonged grieving, maladaptation, loneliness, and repeated mourning. Therefore, health policymakers should provide support before and after the death of loved ones for families.

‘You’re Not Alone for China’: The First Song in Times of COVID-19 to Keep the Faith in a World Crying in Silence

Collective mourning is an expression of societal maturity, cohesion, and respect. The world is in grief, but in early January 2020, before nobody could even imagine that SARS-CoV-2 would turn into the COVID-19 pandemic, a music video version of a pop ballad about love and isolation was spread across a Chinese social network. The song ‘You Are Not Alone’ was adapted as a cover by young foreigners living in China to express their support to bereaved families and frontline workers and encourage the people of China, their second home. At that time, the rest of the world looked to distant China but could hardly expect to face the same adversity months later. The authors reported that the music video was a spontaneous artistic expression copying such traumatic events and the mourning process. The present work analyses how the music was blended with lyrics and images describing the outbreak in Wuhan to reach their goal. The original song and this shortened version for China were compared regarding musical and lyric structures and main characteristics. Additionally, an analysis of the two videos was done regarding cinemetric variables and non-verbal communication that emphasized the power of songs to express deep sorrow and sympathy but also to give hope. Psychological first aid, the five stages of the mourning process by Kübler-Ross, the dual-process model by Stroebe and Schut, and Taylor’s tend-to-befriend provided a better understanding of the translation from interpersonal to societal mourning. Finally, other memorable songs that society spontaneously chose to be performed alone or together to cope with sudden and dramatic situations, mitigate physical distancing, and alleviate human suffering are discussed. Music, lyrics, and artistic performance are playing a key role in building social and emotional ties during this pandemic, hampering individual and social pain and sorrow despite cultural barriers.

Expressing grief through metaphors: family caregivers' experience of care and grief during the Covid-19 pandemic

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted thousands of individuals’ experience of caregiving and grief. This qualitative study aimed to gain in-dept understanding of family caregivers’ lived experiences of caregiving and bereavement in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada. The study also aimed at providing new insight about caregiving and bereavement by analysing the metaphors family caregivers use to report their experiences. Methods: The design of this study was guided by an interpretative phenomenological approach. In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty bereaved family caregivers who had lost a loved one during the first waves of the pandemic. Results: Results indicate that bereaved family caregivers lived and understood their experience in terms of metaphoric cut-offs, obstructions and shockwaves. These three metaphors represented the grief process and the bereaved’s quest for social connection, narrative coherence and recognition. Conclusion: By identifying the meaning of the bereaved’s metaphors and the quest they reveal, our study underlines the singularity of pandemic grief and points to the value and meaning of caregiving with regard to the grieving process.

Loss, grief and healing: accompaniment in time of COVID-19

This paper is a response to the recent correspondence published in this journal where the author rightly stated that need to redirect one’s perception on the different realities of life such as death. This paper discusses the difficulties associated with loss, grief and healing in the time of COVID-19 pandemic. This paper further adds the importance of accompaniment to people experiencing the complicated grief process. The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the way one overcome grief where the bereaved are required to grieve without the support of usual social, cultural and religious rituals.

Personality and Attitudes Confronting Death Awareness During the COVID-19 Outbreak in Italy and Spain

Italy and Spain are two representative examples on strict lockdown last March 2020, also suffering a high rate of mortality in Europe. The aim of this study is to examine their attitudes confronting death awareness during the Covid-19 outbreak. Moreover, Personality was also considered. Different sociodemographic, in situ questions related to attitudes and the brief Big Five of Personality were employed in a cross-sectional design. The main results suggested that Personality traits were stable across countries. A relationship was found between Fear to contagious diseases and Neuroticism and other attitudes during the Covid-19 outbreak, and two different clusters were identified with regards to attitudes, however these did not differ on Personality. Finally, a Cluster group, Neuroticism, Age and Sense of belonging to the Country did predict Fear to contagious diseases. Of note, no differences were found across countries during grief.